well I don't like being an alarmist, it usually helps to have a solution configured if one does, but I am perplexed.
My house plants seem to be "stressed". I can't think of whats doing it either unless its the heat or something in the water, air or soil or ?
I did recently get some soil mix which I added to top them up but in the last 2 months or so leaves have been drying up or turning yellow or the latest one sort of turned into jello.
I went also for a walk by the creek south of here and was quite astonished by the number of darkened leaves and brown spots and such in the vegetation.
Now I realize were getting into the time of the year and the spotless perfection of spring does not last but the damage seems increasingly heavy.
And the insect pops are down although I have seen a few bees and such.
At any rate has anyone else noted any similarieties or difference in same.
yet I suppose theres not much that could be done.

“People tend to not care about plants and forests as much as we do about humans and animals, but sudden oak death could be a bird flu of the plant world waiting to happen,” said Ross Meentemeyer, a landscape ecologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “This may be even worse than chestnut blight in its impact on our forests, since it is affecting multiple keystone species.”

NATURE LOVERS are unwittingly abetting the rapid spread of a virulent pathogen that is killing native trees in the iconic Otways and Brisbane ranges.

Several heavyweight science and environmental organisations yesterday rang the alarm bells over the problem.

They are racing against the clock to stem the spread of the disease, commonly labelled cinnamon fungus, which is ravaging the entire Brisbane Ranges and parts of the Anglesea heathlands.

Ironically the disease is hitching a ride on the boots and car tyres of bushwalkers and national park enthusiasts who traipse into untouched parts of the forest and help spread the bug, which strangles species such as grass trees, banksias and eucalypts.

18 Aug 2007 @ 08:20 by swanny : Soil Globalizationwell what these suggest that human globalization threatens not only the spread of air and skin borne disease and bacteria from humans around the globe like bird flu but in the very soil and such. By selling soil and such from who knows where we may be introducing pathogens and foriegn agents and bacteria that threaten the healthy bacterias and such in the soil. Soil normally doesn't have global distribution but through commerce now I guess it does.

So what might be happening is that we buy these foreign soil mixes put it on our gardens then treat the disease it may cause but spread it to out lying natural areas via our shoes, finger nails and then it attacks these natural areas which may not have any defenses against it.
The principle that emerges perhaps being that you should buy soil that isn't from your immediate (100 mile radius or so) area. Foreign soils sales and transport should be banned as soil "naturally" does not move from its immediate area unless by age old river distribution.

18 Aug 2007 @ 17:27 by bushman : Hmm.Yet, in the recent past when all mankind walked the Earth in serch of food, in untouched lands. Man now does not walk the Earth like he did just 200 years ago, with Horses and Elephants and Cammels, who carried many bugs.
Granted that what ever the cause of the warming, it is incresing humidity, and most house plants are tropical, they love humidity, and so do fungi. The trick is in knowing the plant and where its from. Most your house plants got trained to absorb water thru the roots, but in thier true home they absorb water thru pores on the leaves/stomata. This is your problem, you are watering the roots when the plant is absorbing moisture from the humid air, effectivly clogging the roots and causeing water to sit in the soil for extended times. These soils are not soil but what is called soiless mix all organic matter, so if it sits in water it will break down and creat soluable salts, burning the leafs as well as promoting fungi that would normaly be dormant that is naturaly in all soils. You need to flush out the soil and then let it all dry out till the plant wilts, then soak it and let dry for at least 2 weeks ot till the plant wilts. Note that some plants naturaly wilt even if the soil is wet in high humidity. Keep in mind that most tropical plants use thier roots to spread and hold on to stuff, and absorb water from the air. If you have a plant that is turning to jelly, its because it got too wet for too long, this is called "damping-off" and happens in soiless mixes, not in good draining soil. Before the last iceage, the world was a tropical jungle, it stands to reason that dormant life would come back, as the last iceage subsides. Look up evapotransperation rates, each plant is different, a plant only needs the water it spends per day. As well, some plants have a life span, for example the Acacia tree, if you plant one and water it, it will grow fast but only live about 15 years, if you dont water it, it will grow very slow and live for maybe 65 years. And this even tracks into the animal world, example would be farmed fish as compaired with wild fish of the same size that took longer to get pan sized.
I think the whole point to life is about gaining immunities to all the bugs, of an ever changing planet, that the strongest will survive like it has for billions of years and become immune, and reproduce, till like lots of living things that have become symbiotic. Orchids are symbiotic, they have to grow in moss and bark of trees.

18 Aug 2007 @ 17:35 by swanny : well thankswell thanks bush
you seem to have a green thumb perhaps
just sad to see them wilt after trying to improve them

ed

18 Aug 2007 @ 18:24 by bushman : :}Its the biggest problem with soiless mixes, obviously companies that grow and transport plants, use it because its light, and saves in transport costs, as well they can maintaine the moisture in the soil at the optimum point, where once you get the plant home, its almost imposable to match thier cultural practice that the plant is used to. Also a problem with soiless mixes/potting soil, is that once it is dry, it has a hard time absorbing water, again its about humidity in the air, if the humidity is say around 70% you dont want your soil soggy wet, I say let them go bone dry before you soak the whole thing in a bucket for a couple hours, and then let it totaly drain before putting the plant back where you keep it, the shower is a good place to do soaking if you dont like to move them around or they are too big to move, I got a couple cacti that are over 10ft tall in the living room, no way to move them, but then they dont need hardly any water since they are tropical cacti. I always have to tell the housekeeper not to water during summer monsoons, a hard concept to grasp, if its summer dont over water stuff. lol.